Watch the Super Bowl 2012 with the Coca-Cola Polar Bears Live on Facebook

Friday, February 3, 2012

The Coca-Cola polar bears love football. In fact, in addition to starring in three new commercials, they’ll be tuned into NBC’s broadcast – just like millions of fans around the world and sharing their reactions to all the in-game action, ads and halftime show via a live digital stream.

For this year’s big game, Coca-Cola is launching CokePolarBowl.com, a unique viewing experience for fans that merges a live digital stream and social media with traditional television advertising.

The stars of the campaign are two Coca-Cola polar bears who will be watching the game live and sharing a Coke from the comforts of their Arctic ice cave. The live stream will showcase the animated polar bears’ reactions to all the plays on the field, the halftime show and highly anticipated commercials. Fans will be able exchange tweets with the polar bear using the hashtag #GameDayPolarBears and share select moments from the live stream with friends via social media.

“We’re bringing back the Coca-Cola polar bears to engage an enormous audience in a significant and meaningful way,” said Pio Schunker, senior vice president of integrated marketing platforms and content, Coca-Cola North America. “By interacting with millions of people through both traditional broadcast advertising and an engaging digital platform, we’re offering fans an entirely new and unique game-watching experience.”

While the two polar bears are both football fans, they are rooting for opposing teams, adding to the fun of watching their expressions of delight or frustration as the game unfolds. Throughout the live stream a variety of ancillary characters, including penguins and a young polar bear stop by the bears’ snow cave to share a Coke and enjoy the festivities. Fun moments in the live stream include the penguins’ interpretation of “planking”, penguins dancing and polar bears sharing their favorite fan responses from the twitter feed.

During the game, animators will control the bears and their environment using a combination of traditional video gaming controllers and a proprietary PC-based interface. The animators will be stationed in New York City, in a control room located at MLB Advanced Media, which is a leader in the delivery of streaming content.

This is the sixth consecutive year that Coca-Cola commercials will appear during the Super Bowl broadcast. Coca-Cola worked with Wieden + Kennedy in Portland, Ore., to create and produce the CokePolarBowl.com experience and corresponding TV spots. They collaborated with both Framestore in New York and Animal Logic in Sydney, Australia to develop the animations and digital technology.

You can watch the Super Bowl 2012 along with the Coca-Cola Polar bears here.